Playing Front Mission Evolved and Enslaved. The first is just bad :/ but the second is a nice surprise, especially in this crowded year of high profile sequels. It reminds me a lot of Beyond Good and Evil, Abe's Odyssey and Ico. Beautiful, but really shows a lack of polish... I'm hoping the company continue their work though. It'd be nice to have an Oddworld Inhabitants style company in this day and age.

I'm glad to hear someone else liked Enslaved. I played the demo, and while it didnt seem to offer up anything new that isn't in countless other games, the demo was fun to play while it lasted. Think I might have to at least rent it to check it out.

Playing Front Mission Evolved and Enslaved. The first is just bad :/ but the second is a nice surprise, especially in this crowded year of high profile sequels. It reminds me a lot of Beyond Good and Evil, Abe's Odyssey and Ico. Beautiful, but really shows a lack of polish... I'm hoping the company continue their work though. It'd be nice to have an Oddworld Inhabitants style company in this day and age.

They made Heavenly Sword, they don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as a dev house that brought us Stranger's Wrath.Oh and they are heading up the new Devil May Cry, however that's only because Capcom know it's doomed to failure in the wake of Bayonetta so why not just farm it out to a Western dev and blame them for it?

On a serious note I think there's a slight spark in the Enslaved demo, but jesus that combat is not engaging at all. I mean sure it's a step up from Heavenly Sword since, you know, things actually happen when you push the button however unless the game is less than 35% combat I can see it getting tedious very rapidly. I like the concept though and while the demo has actually dropped it down from being a day one purchase for me I'm certainly going to grab it before the end of the year.

Currently I'm wrapping up Dead Rising 2's "story" and I'm going to try to force myself through the campaign of Reach in view of trading them both in at the weekend so I can pick up the new Castlevania (speaking of lousy combat) and get my Belmont on.

unless the game is less than 35% combat I can see it getting tedious very rapidly.

That's... actually pretty spot on man. Combat takes up a little over a quarter of play time, the rest is platforming and puzzle solving, both of which are pretty good ^^ And some of the boss battles are above average... the killing move on the Demolition Mech is just jaw dropping. Spoilers follow in white text...Monkey get's on the mech's back and begins to rip it's shoulder guards off, prying them half off and then kicking them finally off. The chains that connect the wrecking ball fists are now exposed. Planting his feet on either side of the Mech's head, he grabs both chains, and in slow motion, rips them all the way out, roaring as the wrecking balls slam back into the arms, breaking them finally smashing the head between them.

Picked up Final Fantasy XIV finally the other day, and managed to get my debit card registered for it after a while of the site not wanting to cooperate. I wish Square released a srategy guide for it. I know a lot of people would consider using a guide as cheating, or taking the fun out of the game, but I don't. I have a guide for nearly all my games, and I still manage to have loads of fun, especially since most don't spoil the story. I'd like one for XIV, cause I'd like to know who to talk to get quests, rather than just having to mill about talking to random npc's. It's not like WoW, where you've got a nice big, shiny question mark to tell you who to talk to. And I'm honestly fine with that. I started my mmo days with Everquest, and there were no shiny question marks in that game. No right clicking to talk. No! You had to go up to them, and type in 'hello'. or just hit h. either way. and to further along the quest, you had to type in, 'what [blank]', or who [blank]. *grumbles about young punks and their newfangled mmo's these days*

Well Ive been playing dead rising the last couple of days and Im not impressed. I wasnt impressed with the older one either except for its ability to be a zombie kill fest. Overall, I think its a rental at best.

Now I have to bite the bullet as Ive been delaying this as long as I can. Next week I'll be reviewing Halo: Reach which means all this week I have to play it. A prospect I am not looking forward to

Dead Rising impressed the hell out of me but it is a kind of love it or hate it franchise. I am mad they didn't include Survival Mode again. Despite draining health and limited food it added hours to the DR experience.

I picked up Transformers: War for Cybertron today (I was kind of torn; it was that or Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.) and my inner-nerd is ecstatic.

Currently Playing:Persona 2: Eternal Punishment - Finally stopped leveling, which is nice...Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth - Yep, still leveling.Grandia II - I beat the first one on the PS1 many years ago, so I am really looking forward to this.Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories - Just started Chapter 10.

So, I finally beat Hoshigami.

Nothing about that game is short. Everything is long and utterly obtuse. You are almost fighting the game the entire time because the enemies are built like tanks and there are close to 20 of them on screen. I did the final tower in three hours and the final fight in two hours. It was never hard, per say, just extremely long as I truly thought it would never end. I realized that I had been playing that game for over 20 months, which is really sad. Thank the gods that it is over and I can move on...

Oh, recently, I went back and beat some old favorites of mine. I beat Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy X again. Nothing special, but I had some time on my hands that I wanted to pass by myself and those two games always lift my spirits.

Currently Playing

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment - Another grindfest, but it is so much better than the first one. Unfortunately, I'm like only 20 hours into it, so this might take a while.Vandal Hearts - This is the game that replaces Hoshigami. I have heard that it plays like Fire Emblem, so I am rather excited.Grandia II - I am a little over halfway through it. It reminds me so much of the first game, but just with a mature setting. It is nice to go back to a simple JRPG.Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories - I only have three fights left to go, but I have to do some leveling before I even attempt them.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment - Another grindfest, but it is so much better than the first one. Unfortunately, I'm like only 20 hours into it, so this might take a while.Vandal Hearts - This is the game that replaces Hoshigami. I have heard that it plays like Fire Emblem, so I am rather excited.Grandia II - I am a little over halfway through it. It reminds me so much of the first game, but just with a mature setting. It is nice to go back to a simple JRPG.Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories - I only have three fights left to go, but I have to do some leveling before I even attempt them.

Vandal Hearts was a pretty fun game. I liked trying to find all the little hidden items.